Letter carriers to collect food at mailboxes today

The National Association of Letter Carriers, with the U.S. Postal Service, will conduct a food drive today in Upstate New York, including the Syracuse, Watertown, Binghamton and Albany areas, to help New York City residents devastated by Hurricane Sandy and the storm that followed.

While on their regular routes, letter carriers will collect canned goods and nonperishable food donations left in mailboxes along their routes, joined by rural letter carriers who volunteer to collect food items, the association said in a news release.

Postal customers are asked to leave nonperishable food items, such as canned goods, near their mailboxes. Glass items cannot be accepted. Saturday’s donations will be trucked directly to the Food Bank of New York, which serves more than 400 pantries and kitchens in the five boroughs of New York City.

Letter carriers in the Postal Service’s Albany District, a 38,000-square mile area with 3.5 million postal customers that stretches from the Massachusetts and Canadian borders west to Waterloo and south to Binghamton and the Southern Tier, will participate. This includes ZIP codes that begin with 120 to123, 128 to 129 and 130 to 139.

Also assisting in the effort are local postal clerks, postmasters, supervisors and drivers. 